


Moving On

by WhoStarLocked



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Scooby-Doo! (Live-action Movies)
Genre: BAMF Clint Barton, Cute, F/M, Fluff, Hydra (Marvel), Kidnapping, One Shot, Pre-Avengers (2012), Pre-Relationship, Velma Dinkley is Laura, Velma is smart, post scooby doo movies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 17:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19381369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhoStarLocked/pseuds/WhoStarLocked
Summary: Velma Dinkley is sick of her life with Mystery Inc. This is what happens when she decides to leave and start over. In the end, she can't really complain.





	Moving On

**Author's Note:**

  * For [haroldlad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/haroldlad/gifts).



> For Haroldlad, you posted this story idea on another work of mine, so I thought I'd give it a little go, I hope you like it!

“But Velma, you can’t leave! You’re- You’re the brains of the gang!” Fred says. Velma ignores him in favour of carrying the last box of her things out to the waiting car.

Thing is, Velma wants something more from this life than just solving mysteries. She wants to feel... _alive_ and well, recognised.

“And yet, if you watch, that’s exactly what you’ll see happen.” She snaps. She gives Scooby a final hug before she gets in the car and drives away, leaving the other members of Mystery Inc looking bewildered in the dust.

 

* * *

At the time, when she was fifteen and too brainy for her own good, dropping out of high school and solving mysteries in a cool van with her friends had sounded awesome. Nowadays, Velma isn’t exactly proud of that decision. Sure, she’d had a few great years with the gang, and certainly no one could say it had been boring, but now, here she is, with no high school diploma, no place to call home, no way to get either, and a name that’s just famous enough that everywhere she goes, people ask where Fred and the others are.

_Fuck it all,_ Velma thinks angrily, driving towards the only place she can think of.

Even her mother doesn’t exactly welcome her home with open arms, but she doesn’t tell her to leave, either.

Velma goes to night school. She gets her GED. She spends a year working for a pittance in a library, but, added to the money she got with Mystery Inc, it’s just enough to put her through college.

She aces college. 

She’s valedictorian (she can almost hear Shaggy giggling and calling her ‘Velma-dictorian’ in her head) of her class. She now has a degree in astronomy. She goes further. By the time her she’s nearly finished her final year, she has an offer of employment from NASA.

She takes it.

After a week, she’s sick of people asking about the gang. She talks to her boss, who sympathises, and asks if she’s considered changing her name. Velma hadn’t, but it’s not an unreasonable idea.

“Didn’t I have a cousin called Laura?” She asks her mom that evening.

“Yes, dear, you did.” Since she’s settled down and got her education, her mom’s been a lot more supportive.

“Whatever happened to her?” Velma asks, pushing vegetables around her dinner plate.

Her mom stands and deposits her plate in the sink before answering. “I think she moved to Europe and had a family. Why?” Velma can feel her eyes on her. She just knows that she’s frowning.

“So...” She drawls, still playing with the veg. “She probably wouldn’t mind if I borrowed her name, right?”  Velma looks up, biting her lip.

Her mom looks sympathetic.

“No, she probably wouldn’t. And Laura is a lovely name.”

Velma nods, swallows a mouthful of the now cold food.

“And it’s similar enough to Velma that it shouldn’t take me long to get used to it.” She explains.

Her mother smiles, nodding, and even helps Velma with the paperwork the next day.

* * *

Velma has been Laura for nearly two years when work begins on the project that changes her life. It’s a new prototype rocket – her design – and it could potentially revolutionise space travel; may even give NASA the ability to get to Mars.

She really should have foreseen that it would cause problems.

As far as kidnappings go, it’s not so bad. The men who jump her while she’s in her office are clearly under orders not to hurt her. They take her across country in the back of a van. Her hands are tied, but thankfully, they’ve opted for windowless transport rather than glasses removal and blindfolding. She really hates losing her glasses.

They take her to this base, and strap her into a chair. They tell her that they work for an organisation called Hydra, and that Hydra could utilise her.

_Oh_ _boy_ , she thinks, _this looks bad._

At this point, she knows that only her mom will be worried about where she is, and even then, she probably won’t have reported her missing just yet.

“This rocket of yours is a unique design. Innovative.” A guy dressed all in tactical gear is droning on in front of her. He’s got guns and knives clearly visible on his person. Laura thinks she’s probably meant to be scared, but really, it’s not like he’s pointing one at her.

“Hydra could use this for the greater good.” He’s watching her as he speaks. Laura’s not really sure what he sees in her face. She doesn’t really care - she’s too busy trying to find a way out.

“The applications are endless, really, and this technology could help Hydra bring about-”

He never gets to tell her what it could help Hydra bring about. He collapses, and as his body rolls, Laura sees an arrow lodged firmly in his throat.

What the fuck?!

Laura’s so transfixed on the lifeless body in front of her that she almost misses the guy who drops in from the air vent above, bow slung across his chest.

“Thank god he decided to monologue for so long.” The guy mutters, stepping around the body towards her.

He draws a knife, and Laura flinches and presses her eyes shut, breath not coming quickly enough.

There’s two quiet snicks.

After a few seconds, with no pain blossoming anywhere, Laura tentatively relaxes and opens her eyes. Her wrists have been cut free of the chair.

The assassin is crouched in front of her, clearly focused on cutting her ankles free too.

“Wh-who are you?” Her voice is barely a whisper, and it’s wobbly as all hell, but in the otherwise silent room, the guy hears it anyway.

He glances up, blue-grey eyes meeting hers.

“Agent Barton, at your service, ma’am.” He answers easily, standing and offering her a hand. Laura belatedly realises that she’s free.

“I work for an organisation called SHIELD.” He explains as she stands shakily. She ends up taking his hand just to make sure she doesn’t do something dumb, like fall over.

“We’ve been keeping a close eye on you since you started making plans for this rocket thing.”

“So, you’re a murderer, and you want me to believe that this organisation will do anything good with those plans-”

She’s beginning to yell at him hysterically when he cuts her off abruptly.

“SHIELD wants nothing to do with those plans except to make sure they don’t fall into the hands of the likes of Hydra.” He’s got a firm grip on her upper arm and he’s dragging her across the room towards a door.

“And frankly, call me a murderer if you want, I don’t care, but that guy was more than likely gonna torture you if you refused to co-operate.” He continues, dragging Laura along with him. She’s still trying to catch her breath.

For a moment, he stops, looks at her.

“Look, SHIELD are the good guys, trust me.” He checks their surroundings. “Okay, we’re a worldwide intelligence organisation, alright? Now I need you to calm down, and do exactly as I say, or we’re not gonna make it out of here, understand?”

He’s quiet for a moment, watching her intently. Laura can barely tear her gaze away from his eyes. Eventually she manages to take a breath that actually seemed to fill her lungs, and she manages to nod.

Agent Barton nods back. “Good. Now listen,”

* * *

Laura can’t remember how the fuck they get out. She knows it didn’t go to plan. She knows it was messy, bloody. She knows that agent ‘Good Guy Trust Me’ Barton ends up killing more people. And that’s before he blows the whole place sky high.

She’s escorted by him to this place though, another building in Washington, and actually, they’re not that far away from NASA HQ. At least in this chair she’s not tied down. She is a hundred per cent certain that the door is locked, though. And there’s a one way mirror in front of her.

Laura is left for about twenty minutes, before a balding man in a suit bustles in and sits down opposite her. He looks nice. Friendly, even.

He introduces himself as agent Phil Coulson, and tells her all about SHIELD, that they’ve been thinking about recruiting her, and that they’re sorry about the circumstances of her arrival here, but they didn’t want to see her talents go to waste.

Laura feels completely overwhelmed. She wants to scream. She wants to cry. She wants to yell at these people to stay the fuck out of her life. She wants to go home.

She’s not sure if she does any of those things, or if she just passes out in the chair, but either way, the next time she wakes up, she’s in a bed. And it unmistakably looks like a hospital.

“How’re you feeling?” a voice asks from her left, and she turns her head to find agent Barton watching her from a plastic chair.

“I don’t remember what happened.” She says quietly.

He smiles softly, and in this light, he looks... well, he looks stunning, really. Of course the first person Laura finds attractive since leaving Mystery Inc is a fucking bona fide spy.

“That’s completely normal.” He replies gently. “You tend to find that your brain will block out traumatic experiences.”

She smiles back at him, and for a moment, there’s a peaceful quiet.

Then agent Coulson returns, and she’s wrapped up in bureaucracy and paperwork.

* * *

By the time she gets to go home, Laura has a new job with SHIELD, working part time as an analyst, part time in their R and D department (She has a feeling she’s gonna love both), the promise of a home in the city, a free counselling course, a shiny new ID badge, more contracts to sign than she can carry, and an agent-Barton-shaped hole in her chest.

She thinks it’s probably some kind of reaction to him being her rescuer, but she can’t help it. That darkish-blonde hair and those piercing eyes are stuck in her head and they’re making her heart all fluttery.

Like most things, Laura ends up adapting quickly to her new life, and she finds that she does enjoy it. She hadn’t realised just how bored she’d been of working for NASA until now. The only grievance is that she doesn’t get to see Barton all that much.

* * *

Laura is making her way to her office (she’s decided she wants to be a full-time analyst, and Phil Coulson has been nothing but supportive) when she sees him.

“Agent Barton!” She’s called before she can stop herself. He turns on his heel, looking warily at the people passing through until his eyes settle on her and he smiles.

He waits as she walks the rest of the way to him, and only then turns back round and continues to walk.

“Happy anniversary, by the way.” He says.

“Huh?” Laura asks, completely bewildered. Anniversary? Does he think she’s-

“It’s two years today that you were kidnapped.” He elaborates with a grin, and she lets out a relieved breath. He hasn’t mistaken her for someone else, then.

“Oh!” She lets out a chuckle. “God, has it really been two years? I don’t know where the time’s gone!”

Okay, small talk, she can do this.

He laughs. “Yeah, me neither.” He pauses by Coulson’s office door. “Well, see you around, agent Dinkley.” He grins, and goes to knock.

“Hey, wait.” Laura says, and what the fuck is her mouth doing? Talking on goddamn autopilot like she’s fifteen and agreeing to drop out of high school all over again. Damn it, now she’s paused for too long, and Barton’s standing there smiling uncertainly. “I, um.” She clears her throat. “I was thinking, I never thanked you for that night.”

Clint shrugs and lets out a huff of laughter. “It’s the job.”

“Yeah, well. My mother raised me to be politer than that. Could I buy you a drink sometime?”

His eyebrows rise so quickly Laura can envision them flying off his head entirely.

“Uh, sure, that’d be... uh, nice.” He replies, and oh my god is he going red? Laura thinks. Then he laughs, raises a hand to the back of his neck and rests it there, and he looks so awkward that Laura can’t help but smile. She’s completely fucking gone over this guy.  

“Sorry, that sounded really awkward. That’d be nice. I just, um. Do you even know my name?”

She doesn’t, Laura realises. She knows his last name.

“Do you know mine?” She asks, without really thinking about it. She sure as hell never introduced herself when they first met.

“Sure, you’re Laura Dinkley, ‘cept Laura’s not your real name, it’s the name of your cousin, that you adopted when you got sick of people recognising you, _Velma_.”  He says, with a smile that she really, really wants to taste.

“Damn, you do.” She grins, and he chuckles with her.

“Clint,” He says, offering her a hand. She takes it with a smile and shakes.

“Well, Clint, would Friday at seven be okay?” she asks, and her heart is beating so fast it’s gonna beat out of her chest if he doesn’t answer soon and-

“That sounds great.” He smiles, and it’s so warm and friendly, Laura thinks she could probably melt in it. “I’ll meet you outside?”

Laura grins and nods and Clint smiles back at her.

“I really have to go now, or Coulson will have my hide.” He says, apology clear in his tone. She nods and takes a step back.

“I’ll see you Friday, then.” She smiles, heading to her office.

She hears him echo “Friday.” before he knocks on the office door.

* * *

Laura is staring at the invite in shock.

She’d sort of kept up with Daphne, knew that Fred and Shaggy had gone their separate ways. Had known that after she’d left the gang had kind of fallen apart.

There’s a high school reunion, and they’re all going, and they want to see her, and catch up.

Laura had kind of assumed they wouldn’t want to.

They sent it to her mom’s house, recognises her writing where she’s crossed through her address and neatly written instructions to forward it to the farm.

She still can’t believe she has this.

This beautiful farmhouse, out in the middle of Iowa, Clint planning to ask her to marry him – she knows, because Natasha found him practicing proposing on a SHIELD base on his last mission, and she was so delighted she’d rung Laura straight away - , and, she’s got her own surprise for Clint.

Speaking of, yeah, she’d probably better tell him about this one. It’s not a surprise that will keep.

Laura sets about making coffee for when he gets out of the shower. He’s already been on a run, and she knows he’ll be down any minute.

“Hey,” She smiles, leaning in and getting a kiss as she passes him a mug. “So, I was thinking we could make a start on the spare room today.” She says conversationally, too nervous to sit next to him.

He looks up at her contemplatively. “I thought you hadn’t decided what you wanted to do with it yet?” He asks.  God, she’s so lucky.

“Mm. Well, I hadn’t. But, uh, see, I’ve got some news, and it’s gonna force the issue, so.”

Clint’s frowning at her now. “Does this have something to do with that letter?” He asks, nodding to the letter Laura’s still holding.

“What? No!” She laughs. “No, that’s an invitation to a high school reunion.” Laura smiles. “I don’t think I’m gonna go, it’s not like I can talk much about my life now, and besides, it’s nine months from now, and I’m gonna be a little busy in nine months.”

Now Clint looks even more confused. “Uh, why? What’s going on in nine months?”

“Clint,” she takes a deep breath and steels herself. “I’m pregnant.”

It’s the one and only time she’s seen Clint drop coffee.

Then he’s grinning fiercely and hugging her close and he’s so excited she can’t help but laugh as he picks her up and swings her around and she wraps her arms around him and tells him:

“I love you so much.”

This is all she could have ever asked for and then some.


End file.
